Do you find REDD confusing, opaque, and obtuse? Do you wonder where it came from, how it evolved, and how it impacts indigenous people? If so, feel free to check out our emerging series on "Indigenous REDD" – or download a booklet containing our year-to-date coverage of this fascinating subject.

8 June 2015 | BONN | Germany | By now, most of us know that REDD stands for “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation”, and that it generally uses carbon finance to save endangered forests.

But how does it work, and where did it come from – and what is the new “Indigenous REDD” initiative being spearheaded by the Latin American indigenous federation COICA (Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Ind­genas de la Cuenca Amaz³nica)?

To answer these questions, we’re rolling out a series of easy-to-read articles focused on “Indigenous REDD”. Written in plain English for a general audience, these stories should bring you far enough into the weeds to understand the issues without getting in over your head – and they’ll provide a solid foundation for understanding our coverage as it unfolds between now and the year-end climate talks in Paris.

If you’d like to keep up on this series as it unfolds, please subscribe to the Ecosystem Marketplace eNewsletter by following this link. Subscribe to the Marketplace eNewsletter to receive a monthly summary of all Ecosystem Marketplace original content, or to the Forest Carbon Newsletter to receive our forest-related contentent, as well as content aggregated from other sources.

If you only want to receive the stories relevant to our Indigenous REDD series, send an e-mail to Steve Zwick at SZwick@ecosystemmarketplace.com.

Here, meanwhile, are the stories we’ve published so far. Scroll down to the bottom for the booklet.

REDD Dawn: The Birth of Forest Carbon looks back at the genesis of REDD, which was conceived in 1988 by the World Resources Institute. It offers a brief introduction to the science of carbon accounting and an overview of REDD within the climate talks.